Paperback | February 1, 2000

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There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those stories end. John Arnold's Very Short Introduction is a stimulating essay about how we study and understand history. The book beginsby inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our investigation of history, and explores the ways these questions have been answered in the past. Concepts such as causation, interpretation, and periodization, are introduced by means of concrete examples of how historians work, givingthe reader a sense of the excitement of discovering not only the past, but also ourselves.

About The Author

John Arnold teaches history at the University of East Anglia, specializing in the medieval period and the philosophy of history. His publications include 'Nasty Histories: Medievalism and Horror' in History and Heritage: Consuming the Past in Contemporary Culture (ed. John Arnold, K. Davies,
and S. Ditchfield).

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Table of Contents

1. Questions about murder and history; 2. The history of history; 3. What really happened: truth, archives, and the love of old things; 4. Escapes from the tower; 5. Causation and interpretations; 6. Telling stories, telling tales; 7. Periodization and time; 8. Objectivity, truth, and judgement; 9.The role of the past in the present; Further reading; Index

From Our Editors

This concise, useful and original book about the nature of history, by professor John Arnold, invites you to think about various questions provoked by the investigation of the subject. History explores methods of examining the past such as causation and interpretation. In this illustrated study, you’ll discover how historians arrive at a history or historiography. This illustrated book is part of Oxford’s celebrated Very Short Introduction series, which explains broad fields of study in an easy-to-read manner.